A must do for Foodies in Prague

The Eat with Locals Food Tour was recommended by our Airbnb host, Zuzanna. We should say at the outset, we do not usually take tours, preferring to find out about a city ourselves but this is an absolute must do.

We chose to do the Old Town Food Tour and we were lucky to have a cool but sunny winters day to wander through the city, visiting places that are both traditional and trendy but most definitely not the usual tourist haunts.

We booked and paid for our tour online and received an email with instructions on where to meet our guide and helpfully a photo so we could recognise her.

The tours have up to 8 people but as we were travelling in the off season, it was just the 2 of us.

We met our guide, Míša at the appointed time and were delighted to find that she was an interesting, multi lingual, charming 30 something, who freelances as a tour guide and writer.

We were quickly underway via hidden passages reminiscent of the Passages in Paris, Míša chatted away, providing us with information about the history and culture of the city as well as keeping us informed of the next destination. it’s history and the provenance of the food or wine.

You can click on any of the following links to visit one or more of these fantastic Foodie destinations in Prague or use the map below to follow in our footsteps.

Modern “chlebíček” are open sandwiches with egg mayonnaise or celery salad spread. Sister’s is one of the local office workers favourite spots for a quick, healthy, low cost lunch and it was quite busy.

We vowed to make these at home and Míša assured us that the recipes are easy to find and easily made.

Located directly across the passage way from Sisters is Naše Maso, it is both a butcher shop and restaurant.

We had the traditional “tatarák” or beef tartar and homemade meatloaf on Czech bread.

We were both a bit taken aback by the steak tartar, but feeling adventurous we ploughed in and it was a delight of beef, chilli, onion and of course garlic. Naše Maso were apparently very much on the cutting edge of Czech cuisine when they insisted that Czech beef was good enough to eat and now own the farm. So glad they did it, this is a do not miss shop and quick lunch stop. For dinner the butcher shop is closed and you can eat right in the shop. It doesn’t get fresher than that!

A bbq and grill restaurant in a specialist beer house, where the importance of finding the right dish to match your beer is serious business. The Czech’s are pretty serious about food and beer, they even have little stories about how happy grain is to be made into Pilsner Urquell, as the sign at Katr points out.

We were served “small beer dishes” such as “nakládaný hermelín” (pickled cheese) and “tlačenka” (aspic / headcheese), together with salmon with seasonal vegetable and potatoes/ grilled goat cheese on beetroot and Urquell Pilsner beer.

It was here that we learnt about Mlíko and the Šnyt, Czech beer drinking traditions, be sure to ask about it at the bar.

We could have and probably should have stopped eating after this meal, as we were both quite full, but no there was more just up the road!

Míša surprised us by stopping in a small square in the Jewish quarter across the road from the Spanish Synagogue and Kafka memorial statue, for a “little liquid gift” from her bag and assured us her grandmother says:

“Slivovitz is for when you feel ill, when you feel well, when you feel sad or when you feel happy!

It is the medicine of life!“

Before drinking it though, we were advised to say Na Zdorovie, as we looked into each other’s eyes, otherwise we would have 7 years of bad sex. Phew! That was a close one…

We had previously tasted a supermarket version of this local spirit and it was like petrol. Clearly spending a bit is quite a good idea, as it was very nice and we were warmed and primed for the next destination.

Located in the old Mint building, on the main square, Mincovna could be mistaken for yet another tourist restaurant as there are many to avoid around this part of the city. However Prague locals, have warmed to both the location and the excellent presentation of authentic, traditional dishes with a modern twist.

We had 3 tasting courses which were made up of

fried “Romadur” cheese with cranberries, a smelly but delicious cheese

apple strudel, served with Becherovka, a Czech digestif liquor, made of a secret combination of herbs and spices.

Becherovka has a secret recipe, only 2 people in the family who make the digestif spirit are able to know the recipe and like the royal family they can not fly together!

The liquor broke through the sweet traditional apple strudel and whipped cream beautifully and we were left with a warm fuzzy feeling for our stroll; lets be honest it was a waddle, to the next destination.

A funky little venue located in a small street not far from the river with a selection of Czech & Moravian wines. We tasted white, rose and red wine. The white and rose were ok, maybe a little sweet for our taste but the red, Kolos, was super. We spent a good hour or so chatting with Míša and having a second glass of the superb red wine before we purchased a bottle to take home.

A future visit to Moravia may very well be on the cards as Míša let us in on her favourite weekend away, the cellar hop in the district of the Milan Nestarec winery.

We would recommend making this little wine bar regular stop on your stay in Prague if you fancy a good glass of vino.

Stop No.1 Sisters, Chlebicky

Stop No.2 Nase Maso

Stop No.3 Katr

The Spanish Synagogue for Slivovitz

Stop No. 5 Mincova

Stop No 6. Choco Cafe Red Chair

Stop No. 7 Red Pif Wine Bar

This is not a budget travel activity but we would highly recommend the “Eat like a Local” tours and if you have the chance, request Míša as your guide. We felt like friends by the end of the day and she kindly escorted us back to the river, which as it turned out was only a couple of blocks, but we would have been seriously lost in the winding cobbled passages of the Old City without her.

NB This is not a sponsored post and we have not received any payment from the tour operator mentioned, we just loved it

50 Comments

Janine Thomas
on June 5, 2018 at 9:17 am

This sounds exactly like the kind of tour that I would love to do. I spent a couple of days in Prague and was mostly underwhelmed by the food. I went to MINCOVNA, but not the one at the MInt. The tasting menu that you had looks fabulous. I wish that I had gone there instead.

Wow, that’s very detailed and useful! I love Prague, it is by far my favourite European capital, not far from my lovely home city in Poland, -Wrocław. But I’ve always cared more about the monuments and historic landmarks (as Prague is so full of them!) than food itself. But we do appreciate good local food, too! Will try those places next time!

We recently visited Prague and fell in love with the city! And, the food is so good. It sounds like a great tour and when we return to this city, we will be sure to check out the tour because we definitely missed these spots.

Who doesn’t love food tours? I have never been to Prague but the food they have seems delicious.
I enjoy getting to know a culture through its food and a food tour led by a local guide is in my minds the best way to do that.

Prague is a city I love to visit and now I’ve got a handful of reasons to visit again – thanks for sharing. I really liked your black and white photograph at the beginning of the piece, is it yours, if so, I would like to have seen some more. I love street photography and it has a real fly on the wall feel to it 🙂

Hi Alexander, thank you for your comments, we hope you love Prague as much as we did. Did you get a chance to look at our other posts about Prague, there is another foodie tip for you too. Happy Travels

Reading your post has made me hungry! I don’t usually do tours but a food tour is an exception! ; ) Great that it ended up being just two of you on the tour. So much food on the tour – sounds amazing. Would love to try the Hořice rolls …Mmmm. I’ve not visited Prague, but you have swayed me! 🙂

I’m not a huge fan of tours either, especially food tours because I like to do my research and pick where I eat, but this looks really cool! Definitely something I’d be open to if I read a good review, like in this case 🙂

Its a shame that I have not been to Prague yet, I want to visit it for the architecture but this post now inspires me to explore the food side too, thank you for the tips and I am bookmarking it for my next visit.

Catherine you’ve just made me miss Prague, I used to live in a town called Pardubice an hour outside of Prague on the train and I’ve been to a few of the places you’ve mentioned, Loved the old town quarter . The best is walking around during the winter months, taking in all the smells, sitting at the cafes by the river.

Hi Amit, we are sorry to have made you miss Prague but we can understand that it is a very missable town. It was so wonderful to have visited during winter, the smell of the cinnamon in the mulled wine, the roasting hams in the square, it is a very romantic city. Thanks for commenting

Really like all your descriptions and recommendations!
I’d love to go to Prague (and Budapest too, I saw you wrote articles about Budapest too), and I’ll check again this post when I will do it 🙂
Also, I’d never thought about doing a “Food tour”, but give your positive feedback, I might give it a try 🙂

Hi Pauline, thank you for commenting. We hope you enjoy Prague and Budapest, there certainly are some blogs for Budapest on our site. Great cities, with fantastic food cultures. We would love to hear about your travels too. Happy Travelling

Hi Renata, thank you for your comments. We fell in love with Prague and it’s food and wine scene, oh and the beer too. We have to admit to cheating with the spelling, we got a copy from the Tour company.